Poster #118 - The Role of Parents' Femininity and Masculinity Orientations on Children's Gender Development

• In Event: Poster Session 01

Abstract

The role of social context on children’s gender development has been extensively examined in previous literature (Stets & Burke, 2000). One line of literature that examines individual differences rather than normative gender roles focuses on femininity and masculinity characteristics (Bem, 1974; 1981). Bem (1981) developed Bem’s Sex Role Inventory which aimed to measure femininity and masculinity levels of individuals, regardless of their biological sex. This inventory has been extensively used for decades across multiple studies; femininity orientation is composed of characteristics such as being related, affectionate, and polite; whereas masculinity orientation is composed of features such as being a leader, risk-taking, and decisive. For instance, Türe (2015) examined the role of mothers’ femininity and masculinity orientations on conventional and unconventional utterances of preschoolers while mother-child pairs were conversing about children’s gender. They found that children of mothers, who scored higher on femininity orientation, uttered a significantly higher number of conventional sentences while talking about their own gender, whereas children of mothers, who scored higher on masculinity, uttered a higher number of unconventional sentences in the same task. In the current study, we aimed to examine the role of maternal femininity and masculinity orientations directly on their children’s femininity and masculinity scores.

Through a funded nationwide project, 277 mother and their children, whose age range was 7-17, participated in the current study and completed Bem’s Sex Role Inventory and Demographic Information Form. In a hierarchical regression analysis, children’s age and biological sex were entered as control variables in the first block, and maternal femininity and masculinity scores were entered in the second block. A total of two regression analyses were run predicting children’s femininity and masculinity orientations, respectively. The results of the first analysis, children’s biological sex and maternal femininity orientation significantly predicted children’s femininity orientation (F(2)=4.778, p<.001). Daughters showed higher levels of femininity orientation [B=-.188, t=-3.076, p=.002, CI=(-.303 - -.066)], and also children, regardless of their biological sex and whose mothers had higher levels of femininity, scored higher on femininity orientation [B=-.221, t=-2.940, p=.004, CI=(.057 - 288)].

When the data was split via children’s biological sex and the same regression analyses were run again (except for children’s sex as a control variable), results showed that for daughters, maternal femininity level predicted children’s femininity level, regardless of child’s age, [B=-.246, t=2.614, p=.010, CI=(.044 - .317)]. For sons, the only significant predictor has been found as children’s chronological age on sons’ masculinity level [B=.249, t=2.562, p=.012, CI=(.012 - .091)], but none of the maternal predictors. Taken together, our findings showed that mothers who scored higher on femininity scores have daughters who also scored higher on femininity orientation, whereas as boys have aged chronologically, their masculinity scores got higher. None of the predictors predicted daughters’ masculinity or sons’ femininity orientations. Findings will be discussed within the scope of gender socialization theories.

Authors

• Hatice Işık, Social Sciences University of Ankara

• didem türe şakar, Başkent University

• Nur Elibol-Pekaslan, Ankara Yildirim Beyazit University

• Buse Gönül, University of Maryland - College Park
  Presenting Author

• Fatma Betul Abut, Middle East Technical University

• Fatma Seyma Kalkan Inan

• Sibel KazakBerument, Middle East Technical University

• Aysun Dogan, Ege University

• Deniz Tahiroglu, Boğaziçi Üniversitesi (BOUN)

• Basak Sahin-Acar, Middle East Technical University